Fractional CFO
Part-time CFO-level support for businesses that need senior financial leadership without the full-time hire.
What This Is
A fractional CFO is senior financial leadership delivered part-time. Instead of carrying a full-time executive on payroll, you get the same caliber of financial thinking applied to your business on a schedule that fits its size and complexity. Cash flow forecasting, financial analysis, strategic planning, investor and lender communications, and the judgment calls that sit above day-to-day bookkeeping.
The role is different from bookkeeping and different from tax work. It sits higher up the stack. A bookkeeper records what happened. A tax preparer files what’s required. A CFO looks ahead and helps decide what should happen next based on the numbers and what they imply about the direction of the business.
The Scope
The Scope
Cash flow forecasting and working capital analysis. Monthly or quarterly financial reviews with actionable takeaways. Budgeting and reforecasting. Pricing and margin analysis. Capital planning for equipment, hiring, or expansion. Lender and investor reporting. Financial input on hiring, new service lines, or major operational decisions.
The Engagement
The Engagement
Engagements are structured around a regular cadence of meetings and deliverables. Weekly check-ins for businesses in active growth or restructuring phases. Monthly reviews for steady-state operations. Custom quotes reflect the actual scope, not a generic hourly rate. You know what you’re getting and what it costs before we start.
Why This Matters
Most small and mid-sized businesses eventually hit a point where bookkeeping alone isn’t enough. Revenue is growing but cash is tight. Margins look fine on paper but the bank balance keeps shrinking. A lender wants projections and the owner has to build them from scratch at the kitchen table. The numbers exist, but nobody is turning them into decisions.
Hiring a full-time CFO solves the problem but costs real money. A seasoned CFO in the Los Angeles market commands a compensation package well into six figures, plus benefits and equity. That math doesn’t work for a business doing a few million in revenue, even when the need is clearly there. Fractional engagement fills the gap without forcing a commitment the business isn’t ready to support.
The Gap Between Records and Decisions
The Gap Between Records and Decisions
Clean books tell you where you’ve been. They don’t tell you whether to take on that new contract, whether your pricing is covering true cost, or whether you can afford to hire two more people next quarter. Those questions need someone who can interpret the numbers and project forward, not just close the month.
The Cost of Guessing
The Cost of Guessing
Businesses that operate without financial forecasting tend to make reactive decisions. They discover cash crunches after they’ve started. They learn that a project lost money once it’s already done. They take on debt without running the payback math. Each of those situations is expensive, and avoiding even one of them usually covers the cost of the engagement.
What Changes
You start operating with a forward view instead of a rearview one. Cash flow gets projected out weeks or months ahead, so you see problems before they happen and have time to do something about them. Financial statements get reviewed with context and explanation, not just delivered and forgotten. Big decisions get run through a financial model before you commit.
Beyond the numbers themselves, you have someone to think through business questions with. Dennis spent years at Alexandria Real Estate Equities managing development accounting and at a development firm building an accounting function from scratch. That background means the conversations go beyond surface-level reporting and into the operational mechanics that actually move the business.
Forecasts You Can Act On
Forecasts You Can Act On
Cash flow forecasts that reflect how your business actually operates. Seasonality, collection patterns, payroll timing, and planned capital spending all built in. When a lender or investor asks for projections, they exist and they hold up under questioning.
Decisions Backed By Numbers
Decisions Backed By Numbers
Hiring, pricing, equipment purchases, new locations, and service expansion get evaluated with real financial analysis. You still make the calls, but you make them with visibility into what each choice costs, what it returns, and how it affects cash over the following twelve months.
Pasadena's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A 15-Minute Call
Tell us where your books stand today. We'll ask a few questions, share how we can help, and give you a clear quote.